Color Correcting Moving Objects in Premiere Pro CC

With the recent updates and enhancements, and the introduction of the Lumetri Tool, in particular, colour correction and colour grading using the latest version of Premiere Pro CC have never been easier. But, what if you want to colour correct a moving object in your clip or do other small colour tweaks on the go?

Well, in the video ahead Jordy Vandeput from Cinecom.net showcases how to mask the face of his assistant Kim, track her movement and perform a color correction to make her skin tones look better. The best part is that Jordy utilizes only the available assets Premiere Pro CC provides to complete the task in a few easy and straightforward steps.

First and foremost, you need to duplicate the video clip that you want to modify. The easiest way to do that is by pressing and holding the Alt key and dragging your clip to the upper video track in Premiere Pro’s Timeline. With the duplicated clip selected navigate to the Effect Controls and open up the Opacity tab.

There you will find a few tools that will help you to create your mask. Jordy suggests using the Free draw bezier tool to draw a mask around the portion of your frame that you want to isolate.

Don’t focus too much on the shape of your mask, because later you can easily feather the edges and make it blend seamlessly with the rest of your footage by modifying the Mask Feather setting. Disabling the original video clip will make visible only the area of your clip within the mask so that you can make further changes in the Lumetri Panel on the right.

The final step of the process would be to track the Mask that you’ve already created. Under the Mask Path setting, you will find the track controls where you can track the mask forward or backward. Before using any of these make sure that the Mask is selected.

After pressing the Play button in the Mask Path Tab, the software will immediately start to analyse your video, frame by frame, making sure that the mask stays on the moving subject from start to the end of the clip. It’s a good practice to keep your mouse near the Stop button in the dialog box that will appear on your screen when you commence tracking in case the process goes in the wrong direction.

You can always fiddle with repositioning of your mask manually by utilizing the Track controls that will let you track the Mask more precisely moving it forward or backward frame by frame. Once the process is completed you can access the Lumetri Panel and do all your colour adjustments of the already tracked portion of your frame.

If you want to delve deeper in Colour Grading in Premiere Pro CC make sure you also check out Jordy’s premium course “Premiere Pro Lumetri: Color Correct like a Pro” that will walk you through the professional color correction and grading workflow with the Lumetri tool set of Adobe Premiere Pro CC.